Sudan detains and threatens Bloomberg correspondent

New York, July 17, 2013--A Bloomberg
correspondent working in Sudan has reported being threatened and assaulted
after being detained arbitrarily by authorities in late June. Michael Gunn told
CPJ that he fled the country on July 2 fearing for his life.

"Sudanese
authorities assaulted and threatened an international journalist, with apparent
impunity and with the effect of preventing the reporter from carrying out his
duties," CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour said.
"Michael Gunn should be allowed to work freely in Sudan without fear of
harassment."

Gunn, 35, a Scottish national, told CPJ he is accredited by the
Sudanese government and has been in the country covering a wide range of issues,
including economic and political news, since November.

Gunn told CPJ that he was covering a meeting held by the Umma
opposition party in the Khartoum neighborhood of Omdurman on June 29 when he
was grabbed by police agents in plainclothes. He said he was hit several times,
his bag and pockets searched, and his shirt pulled over his head before he was
thrown into the back of a truck with several Sudanese citizens.

Gunn said the assailants took him to a building where he saw
several men dressed in police uniforms. He said a man in plainclothes told him
in English that if it were up to him, the journalist would be killed, but that
they had to wait for instructions from security personnel.

The journalist said that he was then blindfolded and interrogated for
three hours about what he was doing in Sudan. He said he was slapped several times during the interrogation and that
he was ordered to unlock his smartphone. Gunn said that after the interrogation
was over, he was put back in a truck and released on a nearby street.

CPJ's messages left with Sudanese authorities were not immediately
returned.

Sudanese authorities have frequently harassed journalists in the
past. In June, authorities detained for
three days a Sudanese reporter and interrogated him on allegations of harming
the morale of the armed forces. The same month, authorities ordered a local
printing press to stop the
publication and distribution of three newspapers. The papers continued to
publish online.